Shipmate Marcus came to visit.
 
First things first, we are in a town called Nea Marmaras on Sinthonia (the middle finger in Halkidhiki). The Captain is supping beer and watching the Grand Prix in a bar. I am sat in the same bar practically in the kitchen (need power point for the laptop) blogging. The things I go through for you lot. Marcus arrived safe, sound and raring to go. We decided to go on a little jaunt over to a Turkish anchorage (well it’s rude not to) then mosey on down to Molivos (home of Molly’s bar) on Lesvos. From there we were going to continue our quest to go North (into the mad bad Meltemi wind). Mad, bad fools that we are!! I’ll give you the hi-lights of his 4 week stay!! It was a good sail from Lesvos to Limnos (yippee skippee nice gentle winds). After a night at anchor in a not so quiet bay (noisy generator on hill) we anchored on the town quay in Mirina and all was well for the first 4 days. About 2 boat spaces away from us a ferry would come in each morning and leave each afternoon. In fact for a couple of days there had actually been 2 other yachts between us and the ferry. It was a Sunday (we all know about Sunday drivers) the ferry was leaving, I was in the process of getting a weather report from our friendly German neighbour. There was a bang,, followed by a shout from the Captain. He’s got our anchor! (well tell him to blooming give it back). The thing is when a ferry catches your anchor it’s not as obliging as another yachtie or gullet might be. It just went taking our anchor with it, luckily luckily luckily we had a small bit of line that attached the anchor, it’s chain and line to the boat. This snapped (I know that doesn’t sound good) but if it hadn’t we could have been leaving with the ferry or the boat could have been badly damaged. We managed to tie onto our friendly German neighbour and had the engine on to keep us from bashing into the quay, goes without saying that there were winds of 20kts whilst this was happening. Another friendly German told us that the ferry had dropped our anchor out by the breakwater. So the Anchor retrieval team (the Captain & Marcus) were off in the dinghy to find it (I’m getting a sense of deja vu here). After a couple of hours and lots of well meaning advice from the Germans they returned with the anchor in the dinghy. ‘Anchor retrieval’ badges for both of them, the one who rowed and the one who trawled! This was way to much excitement, we waited a day or so for the winds to drop then left. Many of the people we had spoken to were going straight to Halkidhiki rather than battling on North to Samothraki. Not us shipmates, Samothraki or bust! We made it on a day where there was no wind and then had gales for the first two nights, waves splashing over the breakwater oh joy!! Didn’t stop us enjoying the wonderful waterfalls on the island. The time had come for us to leave but Samothraki didn’t want to let us go. Each morning we’d get up early to try and leave and each morning 25 kts of wind blew to keep us in the harbour. We had no choice but to sneak out at 17.00 one afternoon when the wind wasn’t looking. Nightsail here we come, thing was we only had about 50 miles to do, so for once we were trying to go very slowly. It was a lovely night full moon and calm winds. I went for a catnap at about 1.00am got up at 5.00am and we were there. The island of Thasos that is, we were only able to spend one night here as we’d arranged for another friend Harriet to come and visit and we needed to get to Halkidiki in 2 days to meet her (I know I know, rod back own springs to mind). So we set off on another nightsail, this one was not lovely, it was pretty darn awful, there were thunder and lightening storms all around us and the sea wasn’t happy. It rained, we got soaked and our visiting crew-member was not a well bunny! But in true Team Stella spirit we made it through (somewhat weathered and worn it has to be said). Just in time to celebrate the Captains birthday!! It was a weary crew that anchored up that day. We had made it to Halkidhiki and more importantly we were ready and waiting for our new crew member to join us. Joy joy joy Northern Greece where the winds in the Summer are reported to be light and gentle. I’m reserving judgement on that one, will keep you posted shipmates. There’s a bit too much cloud around for my liking. Love & full moons - The Nightsailors XXX
Sunday, 3 August 2008